Game birds, such as geese and ducks, have been hunted for centuries. These species of birds are both migratory and gregarious, generally traveling in flocks. It appears that they find safety in large groups, much as many types of fish find safety by swimming in schools. Further, they follow each other in flight, benefitting from the draft created by the bird or birds in front of them. The birds migrate south in fall, at a time that coincides with the hunting season.
Hunters often use decoys, or artificial objects shaped and colored to resemble birds, to attract groups of flying birds. Most decoys are designed to resemble birds on the ground or on a body of water, and they are set either on the ground or float on a body of water. However, by either natural selection or learning through experience, many geese and ducks now are wary of conventional hunting decoys. If flying geese or ducks spot something on the ground that looks like another goose or duck, the flock will generally circle around the object on the ground, maintaining a distance that is sufficient to prevent a nearby hunter from presenting a threat. In other words, these birds appear to have “learned” that a bird sitting on the ground is associated with gunshots directed toward the flock.
Motorized decoys that simulate flying birds have been developed. However, these motorized decoys are expensive. Further, the use of motorized decoys is disfavored by many hunters and environmentalists, and efforts are under way to make the use of motorized decoys illegal in the United States.
Thus, there is a need for a relatively inexpensive, non-motorized decoy that simulates birds in flight and that will attract even decoy-wary geese and ducks as they migrate.